While the iPad can certainly be debated as a product, people on the internet are discussing not the product, but the shift devices like the iPhone and iPad represent: a shift away from a computer being accessible to it being something closed and impenetrable. Is this a future we want for ourselves?

IANAMP, however, I would find it hard to believe that Apple is single-handedly killing any and all tinkering in the world. There are plenty of other companies and even industries that are doing quite will (Think RIAA) in their attempts to stifle any innovation outside of their neat, tightly controlled laboratories.

It's really quite sad if you think about it, considering that MANY major computer/technology players got their starts in garages....

I guess I'll have to start digging out a secret bunker in my house so I can start cracking devices on the 'low low' for fear of the government agents parachuting down on me & confiscating my "Hackintosh", or whatever project I tend to be working on at the time... <sigh>